People often wear various types of garments or articles of clothing outdoors, such as vests, overalls, coveralls and jackets in order to insulate them from the effects of the elements. These articles of clothing normally include a number of pockets of various shapes and sizes which can accommodate a number of different items to be carried by the individual. The pockets can be located on both the exterior and interior of the clothing such that a greater number of items can be carried within the clothing. Many types of garments also include various specialized pockets designed to accommodate certain specific items having well defined and unique configurations. An example of such a pocket is a water bottle pocket in which a cylindrical water bottle can be releasably held.
Furthermore, certain types of garments have been developed in which an article holding device, such as an enlarged pocket or pouch, can be releasably attached to the garment, to greatly increase the storage capacity of and types of items that can be held or carried by the garment. However, in garments having this type of pouch, the storage pouch is normally attached to the rear panel of the garment and the weight of any objects positioned within the pouch pulls downwardly on the rear panel of the garment. This consequently pulls the shoulders of the garment rearwardly, and the front panel of the garment upwardly, such that the garment and the weight of the objects in the pouch is uncomfortably positioned on the person. More specifically, in this position the objects in the pouch are disposed against the lower back of the person or below, while the collar or neck of the garment is pressed upwardly against the underside of the neck or chin of the person.
In response to this problem, some garments have been developed that allow for the repositioning of the pouch and the weight in the pouch to attempt to avoid the discomfort provided by previous garment designs. For example, Puco et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,082 discloses a vest backpack in which a backpack is releasably secured to the vest by a number of zippers and by a load adjustment member that is movably secured to the vest. The load adjustment member is secured to the vest by a pair of rear straps extending from the load adjustment member and fixedly secured to the rear panel, and a pair of front straps fixedly secured to the load adjustment member opposite the rear straps and fixedly secured to the front panel. The adjustment member is moved by adjusting the length of the front straps to raise or lower the load adjustment member on the rear panel. By raising or lowering the adjustment member, the backpack can be positioned at different levels on the rear panel on the vest.
However, in this particular vest construction, each of the front and rear straps is fixedly secured to the front and rear panels, respectively, of the vest, which function as the anchoring points for the adjustment member. Thus, in order to prevent the adjustment member and straps from simply pulling upwardly on the front and rear panels of the vest, thereby bunching the panels of the vest and leaving the adjustment member in a stationary position, this vest construction requires a waist belt to be attached to the vest at the point of connection of the front and rear straps to the front and rear panels of the vest. The function of the waist belt is to maintain the position of the vest on the wearer such that the adjustment of the front straps will function to raise the adjustment member on the rear panel. However, on many occasions where the belt is not used or is improperly secured, when the front straps are adjusted in length to raise the adjustment member, the adjustment of the front straps simply pulls upwardly on the waist belt and front panel, thus bunching the front panel of the vest upwardly instead of moving the adjustment member as intended.
Therefore, it is desirable to develop a garment or article of clothing having a number of pockets for holding items and an adjustable weight support mechanism which can be used to shift the weight of the items in the pockets into a comfortable position for the wearer without the need for a separate waist belt.